Wednesday, March 26, 2008

Kirin Yokohama Beer Village

Cool - Kirin has a big factory here in Yokohama and offers free tours of the brewery (1-17-1 Namamugi, 045-503-8250). Even though Kirin is my least favorite Japanese beer, I wasn't exactly going to refuse the two free beers at the end of the tour. After all, free beer is free beer. (Snag any unused coupons from anyone else in your party and you might get even more!)

And unlike the Taiwan Beer factory, the facilities here were very nice, with overhead views of the brewing and packaging floors (one could almost see Laverne & Shirley down there putting that glove on one of the bottles). We even got to sample some of the sweet wort before the yeast had been added; perhaps not surprisingly, it tasted like liquified bran flakes. They weren't selling any beer-based soap in the gift shop though.

If you come out here, take the Keikyu line to Namamugi station and just follow the multiple signs all over the station pointing to the Beer Village. You'll see the big Kirin building from a distance once you get out of the station anyway. No reservation was needed for us today...we just walked in.